More details on why the Commissioners refused to give HLA a tax abatement for MBA. Of particular interest are the calls to 911.
November 9, 2005
Hidden Lake responds to opposition
By Sharon Hall
Hidden Lake Academy presented its side of the argument to the Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners over whether tax abatements should be given to a proposed new project at a work session Nov. 1.
The proposed project, Mountain Brook Academy, faced heavy opposition from homeowners in the Hightower Church community, where the new academy would be located, at October's board meeting.
HLA is asking for a five-year tax abatement and five years of graduated taxes at 20 percent over the next five years.
The privately-owned therapeutic boarding school made the request at the October development authority meeting, where members of the authority voted to recommend the abatement to the board of commissioners.
Residents in the neighborhood of the proposed academy, however, not only objected to the tax abatements, but oppose the presence of the facility in the community.
HLA was scheduled to present its case at the board meeting, but asked to be removed from the agenda after viewing a handout concerning information on 911 calls and Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office case numbers purportedly involving HLA students.
?We were hit with something we weren't prepared for,? said Herman Essert, HLA consultant on the project.
?There's a lot of stir in the community about what Mountain Brook is and isn't,? said Bill Gray, business director of HLA and Ridge Creek, the boarding school's wilderness leadership program, ?a lot of rumors flying around.?
HLA returned to the commission after researching some of the information contained in the handout to ?clear up some of the issues brought up,? Essert said, and to dispel the rumors.
?One rumor is that Hidden Lake is building a prison,? Gray said. ?That's not what we're here for. There will be no barbed wire, no guard towers, and we're not getting ready to sell it to the state for a prison. It looks like a school. The difference is the kids will be staying on the property, with boys' and girls' dorms. We don't work with criminals. We work with kids who have academic problems. Mountain Brook is for kids who are further behind in academics and who have emotional development problems. They will be staying on campus more than Hidden Lake kids because they need to focus more in order to catch up. Mountain Brook is not a lock-down facility, but the difference is we can physically detain students there. They won't be walking down your roads.?
Essert addressed specific information contained in the handout passed out at the Oct. 21 board meeting. One of the incidents reported was a call to LCSO concerning ?shots fired.? That call, Essert said, was made by HLA.
?It was a Lumpkin County resident shooting at the side of our dorm,? he told the commissioners.
Another call mentioned in the handout was of a bomb threat. That call was made by HLA because the school ?received a call from a young man in Tennessee who found out his parents were sending him to Hidden Lake.?
A number of ?unruly juvenile? incidents were listed on the handout. HLA researched the records, and found that from 2002 until present, calls about unruly juveniles from HLA and Ridge Creek (HLA's second school) account for only 2.5 percent of all such calls in Lumpkin County - 7 out of a total of 282 calls.
The handout also stated 38.5 percent of all runaway calls to LCSO were received from HLA, and that each case requires two to 20 man-hours from the sheriff's office.
While the number of runaway calls from HLA is high, Essert said, ?that doesn't paint a true picture. We have an obligation to parents and kids to call Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office when a child leaves campus. Sheriff McClure said that less than half the calls ever get assigned to an officer. Many of the kids get about half way down Wahsega Road - the store - and turn around and walk back.?
The total number of 911 calls between 2002 and present were 85,981. Of those, Essert said, 102 originated from HLA or Ridge Creek.
[2.8 per month]
?That's less than one-half of one percent. I don't think we're that big of an influence on Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office.?
Essert added that in all instances of property damage caused by HLA students restitution was made.
Essert also presented the ?dollars and cents and economics? of HLA's request. In hard money, he said, HLA's economic impact on the county during 2004 was $12.3 million. The major portion of that figure was payroll for HLA's faculty and staff, 70 percent of whom live in the county.
HLA also contributes ?soft money? to the county, which is harder to estimate, Essert said. This contribution is made up of employee and visitor spending.
Parents of HLA students are required to attend meetings quarterly, and while here stay in local motels and eat and shop on the square and in the county, he said.
Mountain Brook Academy plans to hire 80 additional faculty, plus food service staff.
In addition, parents will be required to attend monthly meetings at the school, for an estimated economic impact of $11,000-plus in 2006 alone.
In addition, Essert said, Mountain Brook is an ?environmentally soft industry that compliments the area.
?We are asking for a $71,000 tax incentive, but that's $71,000 the county can only collect if we go ahead and build Mountain Brook in Lumpkin County. We're asking the county to help us to bring an $11,000 economic impact here.?
A number of audience members spoke in favor of tax abatement for the proposed project.
?I was on the development authority in an Ohio town when tax abatements were initiated there,? Fred Fister told the commissioners. ?I got in touch with the city manager there to ask him how they had worked out. He told me they have had 30 projects since tax abatements were started, and they have had a great effect on the economy, especially on the school system.?
Dahlonega Mayor Gary McCullough pointed out that the only real tax abatement would be the amount of taxes currently paid by HLA.
?I was against it until I looked at the numbers,? he said, ?but all you're really giving them is $6,500 a year. I'd love to have industry like that in the city.?
Development authority member Don Trice told the board he voted for the abatement.
?I have experience with public/private partnerships. This is abatement of taxes that won't be here if they don't build the facility.?
?I think this is something we should do for other businesses coming in,? an audience member told the board. ?For every dollar of income the county gets in new taxes, it puts out 35 cents for services for businesses and $1.05 in services for residences. We need more businesses to help balance the tax base.?
?If you think you have to spur growth in Lumpkin County, just take a look down 400. You don't have to give tax incentives to spur growth,? Hightower Church community resident Billy Wells told the commissioners.
?Where do you draw the line?? asked Bernice Ricketts, co-owner of Moore's Hardware. ?We are a struggling business, and we could use a tax break. If you do it for this business, I'm going to come see what I can do, and I think a lot of others will too.?
Several people also spoke favorably of their experiences with HLA students.
One lady who works with the youngsters at her church said, ?They are the best troubled kids I've ever worked with. They are setting goals for themselves, they want to heal their relationships with their families. I'm in support of more facilities like Hidden Lake.?
One HLA employee told commissioners that 100 percent of HLA students are accepted to college, and the youngsters have donated many hours in community service.
?How can one call these people criminal? Facilities like this are sorely need in this country. Hidden Lake Academy deserves every consideration.?
Steve Churchwell of St. Luke's Catholic Church said he visits HLA monthly.
?One of the high points of my living here is my association with these kids.?
A member of HLA faculty said she had taught ?unruly kids in Fulton County, and I was an unruly kid. I would take any Hidden Lake Academy student home with me or to my parent's home without a second thought. These kids do have problems, but they are not kids who are going to attack you.?
?I think fear makes cowards of us all,? District 1 Commissioner ?Dr. John? Raber told the crowd. ?I think we all have fear of someone new coming to town, but that's not the case here. My wife is a high school counselor, and I asked her about what kind of kids are at Hidden Lake. She said, ?What do you mean? You raised two of them.'
?When you have 60 percent of your ad valorem taxes coming from residential and 40 percent from commercial enterprises, you're bleeding.
?When it's 90 percent from residential, you're hemorrhaging.
?Folks, we're hemorrhaging here in Lumpkin County.?
?I have the fear of a sucking sound going down the road to the new Wal-Mart in Dawson County,? one man replied. ?Wal-Mart is the largest taxpayer in Lumpkin County. We have to do everything we can to keep businesses like Mountain Brook here.?
The commission will vote on the tax abatement issue at the monthly board of commissioners meeting Nov. 17, 6 p.m. at City Hall.
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